Gender, Crime and Justice

Question 1

Stats underestimate female crime because

Answer 1

• Female crime less likely to be reported

- Female crime less likely to be prosecuted

Question 2

Chivalry Thesis

Answer 2

Pollack - men have a protective attitude towards women and don’t like to accuse females of crime, or prosecute them.

Hood - out of 3000 defendants, found women are 33% less likely to be jailed

Question 3

Counter for Chivalry

Answer 3

Box - in Self Report Studies, foud women who commit serious crimes are not treated any different

Also ignores male crimes against women (Yearnshire)

Question 4

Heidensohn

Answer 4

Courts treat females harsher as they deviate from gender norms aswell as societal norms.

Double Deviance

Question 5

Smart

Judge Wild

Answer 5

Double standards occur as CJS is patriarchal, which is clear in rape cases.

Judge Wild - women who say no don’t really mean no, it depends on how they say it. If they don’t want it just keep their legs shut’

Question 6

Walklate

Answer 6

In rape cases, the woman is on trial to prove her word not the rapist

Question 7

In a Functionalist view, female crime is lower because…

Answer 7

Parsons - Gender norms

Kids socialised by woman, therefore boys reject femininity, as dad doesn’t socialise, the boys try to compensate their masculinity through deviance. This causes more boys to commit crime.

Question 8

Heidensohn

Control Theory

Answer 8

Women do less crime as:

• Controlled at home (if they deviate, causes DV - links to dobash and dobash)
• Controlled at work
• Controlled in public

Question 9

Carlen

Answer 9

Gender Deals:
- Draws on Hirschi’s theory of life is based on deals. If reward is shit then turns to crime.

Carlen found w/c women had no class or gender deal. If they work they would get a shit reward. Not many got the chance for a gender deal and if they did, it was met with abuse - therefore again the reward isn’t there.

This forced w/c girls to crime

Question 10

Adler

Answer 10

Liberation Thesis -
- Female crime has increased as women are liberated of their original roles, they now join jobs and can now do white collar crime.

Question 11

Counter for Adlers Liberation Thesis

Answer 11

• Female crime was on the rise before liberation.
• Chesney-Lind (w/c women are more likely to be criminals, therefore white collar isn’t the reason for increase in crime)

Question 12

Hand and Dodd

Answer 12

between 2000 and 2008, female crime increased by 17% a year

Question 13

Crime survey for England and wales - Gender Differences

Answer 13

Murder - 70% men. 60% of womens murderers are bf or ex

Question 14

Lea and young

Female crime

Answer 14

In self report studies, women are more at risk of being victims, which is not what official stats conclude.

Question 15

Messerchmidt

Answer 15

Masculinity is an accomplishment and one way to accomplish it is through deviance and crime.

Question 16

Counter for Messerschidt

Answer 16

Why don’t all men commit crime then?

Question 17

Winlow

Postmodernity, masculinity and crime

Answer 17

Shift to PM has caused instability and a rise in clubs/night economy.

In Sunderland, w/c men could work as bouncers, giving them legit job with illegal opps. The bouncers got ‘bodily capital’ through bodybuilding which deterred people from fighting them.